


A Point of View

by ensemble



Series: An Independent Uchiha [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, preslash, they're kiddos so it's just a weirdly intense friendship right now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 04:57:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11844393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ensemble/pseuds/ensemble
Summary: The independent Uchiha clan and Konoha Village have always had an uneasy coexistence, but now war between the two neighbours seems to be on the horizon. In the midst of this tension, ignorant of the political situation, a few young shinobi make friends of their enemies





	1. Prologue

The hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, leaned back in his chair, pipe in hand, and exhaled a steady cloud of tobacco smoke. His hair had turned to grey after years of overseeing Konoha, the Fire Country's hidden ninja village. His wife Biwako had begun to more pointedly suggest he retire from his post, but Sarutobi intended to resolve as many threats to Konoha's future as possible before passing the torch to the next hokage, and one threat in particular.

Sarutobi turned his gaze away from the open window and returned it to the jonin in front of him.

"You're certain it was the Uchiha?"

The jonin nodded. His hair was silver too, though not from age, and he wore it in a stubby ponytail. The bags under his eyes and the slight droop to his posture suggested a tiredness that the man was struggling against.

"Yes sir," said the jonin. "I recognized two of them, sir - Uchiha Akihiko and Uchiha Nami. It was them, without a doubt."

Sarutobi believed him. Hatake Sakumo had made a name for himself as a tracker-nin, assassin, and hand-to-hand fighter throughout the Fire Country, and he'd run up against the Uchiha more than once. His experience with the Uchiha was, in fact, a part of the reason the hokage had recently invited Sakumo and his son to join Konoha Village.

"Very well," said the hokage. Thank you for your report, Sakumo. You are dismissed."

Sarutobi waited until Sakumo's footsteps had faded away down the hall, then turned to the blond man standing beside him and raised an eyebrow.

"I know, I know," said the other man. "There's no need to look at me like that. You were right."

Sarutobi took another puff of his pipe. "In this case, Minato, I'd have been happier to be wrong." 

Sarutobi shuffled through the papers on his desk until he found a map, which he unfolded.

"Five merchant caravans robbed within the last two weeks," he said, tapping on the map, "and now today we have Lord Fuji's retinue attacked in broad daylight on the main road, despite his escort openly containing several of our own ninja. Your thoughts?"

"The attacks were covert before," observed Minato, "night-time, or very early in the morning. We were unable to positively identify assailants in those attacks. It might be two different groups."

"True," said Sarutobi, "however it's also possible that all the recent attacks were committed by the Uchiha, and that they're now escalating. We must consider both scenarios." He leaned back in his chair.

"Well then," said Minato after a moment, "we must send a missive to the Uchiha, and request a meeting with them. We won't solve anything by responding with violence. We must uncover the reason for their actions, and negotiate with them to resolve the issue."

Privately, Sarutobi believed that if the Uchiha turned out to be willing to enter negotiations merely after a polite request to do so, then he, Sarutobi, would eat his own pipe. Uchiha Madara had been a thorn in Konoha's side since before Konoha even fully existed, and Sarutobi doubted Madara was likely to break the streak at this point, bar the man's actual death. Which, if the rumours were true, might not be so far off.

Aloud, Sarutobi said, "Of course," and smiled.

Minato beamed back at him. "I could go and write the letter now, sir, with your permission."

Sarutobi nodded. "Go on then. But find Danzo and send him in here while you're about, please. I need a few status reports from him."

Sarutobi watched Minato go, smiling fondly after him. Minato had bold dreams of peace - dreams far more optimistic than Sarutobi allowed himself to be these days. A willingness to trust only resulted in betrayal, in Sarutobi's experience, much as he wished for the opposite to be true. Minato's openminded honesty was a trait Sarutobi admired and respected in his pupil, and one he hoped Minato kept in the event that Sarutobi's plans to make him his successor came to pass.

There came a knock at the door.

"Ah, Danzo," said Sarutobi. "I fear we must speak about our Uchiha problem."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this sitting half-finished on my computer for over a year now and figured 'to hell with it' after a rough week. This part should be about 10 chapters.


	2. A Meeting of the Minds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two boys who wish to train are confounded in different ways.

The thunderstorm had been raging all afternoon, the third summer storm in less than a week. The nearby rivers had all swollen to the point of bursting from the rain, and a few areas of the countryside had been evacuated in case of flooding. The air was thick and hot, and the world outside was tinted the gray-green of an overcast sky.

Kakashi sat at a window sill with his chin resting on his arms and stared out into the rain. His silver hair was overgrown and flopped messily to one side, and his eyes were gray and piercing. He wore a cloth mask over the lower half of his face, ostensibly for the sake of hiding his expression, but mainly because Kakashi thought it made him look mysterious and cool. He glanced over his shoulder towards his father.

"I won't go far," said Kakashi, for what felt like the hundredth time. "Just into the forest. Please?"

"No."

Kakashi's father, Hatake Sakumo, was draped backwards over the window sill with his book held up in the air above him. Any passer-by willing to brave the storm would have seen the top of Sakumo's head poking past the window frame, protected from the rain by the wide overhang of the Hatake house roof. Sakumo's yukata was opened so widely that it threatened to fall off, and a motorized fan on the table nearby blew tepid air directly at his bare chest.

"I passed the genin exam last week, and we've only been in Konoha a month," pointed out Kakashi.

Sakumo remained motionless despite Kakashi's pleas. "I said no, Kakashi."

It was easy for him to say, thought Kakashi spitefully. His father was always being sent out on missions by the hokage, and had in fact just come back from one just yesterday. Nobody ever told Sakumo that he wasn't allowed outside. It just wasn't fair.

"Being a genin means I'm not a baby any more," said Kakashi. "It means I'm a real ninja. I can train by myself."

Sakumo raised an eyebrow at his son. "Kakashi. It's lightning out, and you want to go play in the trees. This does not instill in me a confidence in your good judgement."

"I'd stay on the ground, obviously."

"That's hardly better."

Kakashi decided to change tack. "I suppose I could train in the house, and make it even hotter in here."

This earned him a squint. "Must you?"

Kakashi waved his arms theatrically. "Well if I can't train outside-"

"Correct."

"Then I've got no choice!"

Sakumo sighed. "Oh well. We'll suffer together, then." He turned a page in his book.

Kakashi stood with his hands on his hips for a few seconds and waited to see whether his father was on the verge of suddenly coming to his senses. When this did not appear to be the case, Kakashi stomped peevishly over to the storage closet, fetched the wooden training dummy out of it, and set it up on the opposite wall as noisily as possible. He took up his stance, spared a glance over his shoulder at his father, then began to hit the various arms of the wooden dummy in the pattern of an oft-practiced kata. Each arm clacked loudly when hit.

After a few moments, Sakumo said, "Kakashi?"

"Yes, dad?" said Kakashi, with poorly-concealed hopefulness.

"Your right rising block is off. Turn your arm out a little more at the end."

Kakashi sighed. "Yes, dad."

Kakashi returned to his katas and made sure to finish his right rising blocks properly as his father had instructed, because as much as Kakashi disliked not getting his way he hated doing things improperly even more. The repetitive motions of the katas lulled him into a trance-like focus, and after a while Kakashi could almost forget that he'd wanted to do something else. Several minutes passed this way, the silence broken only by the pitter-patter of rain and the click-clack of the training dummy.

"Kakashi?" said Sakumo. "I think the rain's starting to let up. If it stops completely, you can go train outside. Okay?"

Kakashi considered this. If he went out soon everything would still be wet and slippery and lit strangely from the clouds. There were always a lot of smells after a good rainstorm too, once you figured out how to get past the smell of worms. This wasn't quite as good as training in an actual storm, but it wasn't bad. Kakashi wondered if it would be harder to climb trees with chakra when the bark was wet, or whether the storm nearby would help him get closer to learning lightning release like his father could do.

"Okay," said Kakashi.

His father returned to his book and Kakashi turned back to his dummy, both of them smiling softly.

*

Obito took a deep breath and tried to imagine his kunai hitting dead-centre on the target he'd drawn on the tree trunk.

His aunt Mikoto had told him that it helped to visualize what he wanted to do before he did it, that his mind's focus would help his body figure out what it had to do. Obito squinted at the target, his eyes crossing in intensity, and hurled his kunai. It missed the tree completely and sailed into a berry bush, hitting something unseen with a sharp ping.

The rain had stopped now and the thunder was rolling away towards the distant canyons. Without the press of clouds overhead the temperature had dropped to a more tolerable level, and Obito could hear a few hopeful tweets from birds who planned to nip out for a snack before evening. The world was that strange yellow hue you often got with rain, and Obito supposed there was probably be a rainbow out there somewhere beyond the leafy treetops.

Obito stared hatefully at the tree target. He knew that he had to be doing something wrong, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Certainly none of the other Uchiha seemed to have as much trouble as Obito had with everything, be it aiming, chakra control, or the famous Uchiha clan fire techniques. He constantly watched the other Uchiha and tried to commit their movements to memory, but no matter how Obito tried his own limbs never seemed to be able to move as smoothly or cleverly as theirs.

It probably didn't help that he had to train by himself. The higher-ranking ninja were too busy on important missions to teach Obito. The Uchiha clan was in direct competition with the much larger Konoha village for the Fire Country's protection and assassination contracts, and Obito was considered too unskilled to be assigned anything more important than baby-sitting or pet-finding. Yet - how could he ever get any better if no one would teach him?

Obito's second cousin Tsubaki was an occasional exception, but even she had less and less time for him these days with her growing responsibilities as clan heir. The current clan head was her grandfather, Madara, and he was very old. Obito had heard some of the adults speaking in hushed tones about Madara's failing health lately. Obito wasn't sure what would happen when he died - Tsubaki seemed too young to inherit, being only fourteen, but Madara had named her specifically - even bypassing his own son, Furuma. He'd seen something of himself and his brother in Tsubaki and her younger sister, Ume, apparently, and after that his mind became fixed.

Obito sighed. He'd practiced by himself all morning and his only other friend, Rin, was busy as well, so he'd have to practice by himself the rest of the afternoon too. Obito liked Nohara Rin, who was in his opinion kinder and prettier than any of his Uchiha clansmen, but she was training to be a medic-nin and so was nearly as busy as Tsubaki. Sometimes when she showed up she looked so tired that Obito often convinced her to take a nap rather than stay awake to watch him struggle.

The only other person who sometimes helped Obito train was aunt Mikoto, who was presently recovering from giving birth the day before yesterday. This, Obito had to admit, was a pretty good reason for being busy. Yesterday Obito had visited her and the new baby, Itachi, and had given him a brightly-coloured plush cat doll. The baby had taken it solemnly in his hands and held it quietly, watching Obito steadily the whole time.

"I bet he can already throw kunai better than me," muttered Obito.

On a whim, Obito took two kunai out of his pouch and threw the first and then the second right after it, his tongue stuck out in concentration. What he'd hoped to happen was that the second would hit the first and alter the path of the first kunai, like he'd seen some of the older Uchiha do. Instead they flew in opposite directions until they were out of sight. Obito heard one clunk into something tree-sounding, but the other made a splash. Obito winced. Into the river.

I'd be able to do it if I had my Sharingan, said a bitter voice at the back of Obito's mind. Obito squirmed at the thought. Deep down, he knew that this was the real reason his clan ignored him. Those Uchiha who never managed to awaken their Sharingan were ultimately relegated to non-combat duties which, while valuable in their own way, Obito couldn't help but think of as second-rate positions in Uchiha society. No matter how much Obito appreciated a good loaf of bread, heroes were ninja, not bakers, and Obito intended to be a hero.

If pressed, Obito would have to admit that he didn't know what Sharingan did, exactly. It seemed to improve an Uchiha's aim, timing, and reflexes somehow, and made it possible to predict an opponent's movements. Tsubaki had told him that the Sharingan could copy anything from jutsu to handwriting and that it let you see chakra, although the chakra-seeing wasn't as accurate as the Hyuuga clan's Byakugan eye technique. There were other Sharingan abilities that Obito had heard of, too, like the Eternal Flame Amaterasu, or the genjutsu Tsukuyomi, though these abilities were rare. Obito wasn't sure how an Uchiha went about learning them; he assumed it must be some sort of highly-specialized and difficult training.

Obito eyed the target again. Well, it wasn't like the other Uchiha would have gotten the two-kunai trick right on the first time either, with or without Sharingan. Obito would just try again, over and over, until he figured it out. He was sure he could do it, if they could. He drew another kunai from his pouch.

"You're terrible."

Obito jumped and spun around, wild-eyed, and fumbled his kunai so badly it landed point-down on his own foot. He yelped and clutched his foot reflexively, hopped around, then tripped over a tree root and landed heavily on his rump. He remained on the ground and moaned, rubbing both injured appendages.

"I think," said the mystery voice, "you might actually be the worst ninja I've ever seen."

Obito glared into the underbrush where he thought the voice was coming from.

"Shut up!" he said, to a suspicious bush.

"Are you crying?"

"No!"

A silver-haired boy stepped out of the bushes to get a better look at him.

"You are crying!"

 

Kakashi had never seen a ninja cry before, and this particular ninja even looked a few years older than him. The boy had messy black hair and wore a pair of orange goggles that he'd pushed out of the way to wipe his watering eyes. He didn't look familiar.

"Who are you anyway?" said Kakashi

"Who are you?" countered the other boy.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Kakashi." He bowed sarcastically. "It's very nice to meet you, Mister Clumsy Crybaby."

The other boy jumped to his feet. "My name is Obito, you jerk!"

Kakashi cast a critical eye over the target tree, which had a suspiciously small number of kunai stuck on it.

"Are you really a ninja?"

"Yes!"

"How old are you even?"

"Nine."

Kakashi snorted. "I'm only five and I'm way better than you."

Dimly, Kakashi was aware of the voice of his conscience, which tended to sound like his father. Try to be kind, Kakashi, said this inner father. But what was the point of being nice? It was just a different sort of lying in Kakashi's opinion, and he knew that he'd rather know the truth than be lied to out of pity.

Kakashi drew up beside Obito, who watched him warily, then picked up Obito's dropped kunai and twirled it deftly in his hand. He threw it at the wooden target Obito had been practicing on and it landed with a satisfying thunk, dead-centre. Obito glared at him.

"Your fancy throws make your bad aim even worse," said Kakashi. "Just throw it normal."

"I know that!" said Obito. "Go away!"

Obito turned away angrily and started to collect his kunai. This was made more difficult than it should have been because as well as the ones embedded in the practice log there were also kunai in the bushes behind the log and in various tree trunks within a twenty-foot diameter of the log.

"If you know, then why don't you do it?" said Kakashi, ignoring Obito's request to leave.

"Because none of your business, stupid Kakashi!" said Obito.

Obito dropped several kunai on the ground as he said this, his hands made even clumsier than usual with nerves and anger. He picked them up again and stuffed them into his thigh pouch, then glanced up and froze.

Kakashi looked up, too. Both of them stared at a stray kunai stuck to the underside of a tree branch 30 feet straight up. Kakashi looked back and forth between the kunai and the training log, and tried to come up with a sequence of events that could have lead to it ending up there that didn't finish with "worst ninja on the planet." Obito was doing the exact same thing, and obviously came to similar conclusions.

Something inside Obito snapped. Kakashi watched, intrigued, as the boy clutched at his own hair, screamed, then rapidfire-threw all of the projectiles he'd just picked up at the log. When he'd emptied his store of throwables, Obito made a few quick hand-signs and set the log and adjacent greenery alight with an enormous ball of flame he spat out of his mouth. The late afternoon air, already warm, briefly became volcanic until the fireball dissipated, leaving Obito sweaty and out of breath on the edge of a smoldering patch of landscape. He swayed a little, then sat down hard on the ground and put his head in his hands.

Kakashi walked past him to where the log had stood only moments before. Obito had still missed most of his throws, but the fireball - that had been dead on. Kakashi poked at what was left of the log with the toe of his sandal.

"That was a good jutsu," said Kakashi.

Obito looked up from his hands, red-eyed. "What?" he croaked.

Kakashi indicated the scorched earth with a wave of his arm. "Your fireball. Your throws were still bad, but your fireball was good." He paused. "I can't make a fireball."

Obito slumped his face back into his knees. "You're just making fun of me."

"I'm not," said Kakashi. Then he added, "There's nothing wrong with your eyes, you can aim fine. You just need to practice throwing more."

"Nothing wrong with... my eyes?" repeated Obito.

He had a look on his face that Kakashi didn't know how to interpret, so Kakashi just shrugged. He glanced back at the scorched stump again. A fireball was a good jutsu.

"You want to get better, right?" said Kakashi, after a moment.

"Obviously."

"So." Kakashi gestured towards a nearby tree trunk. "Throw some more."

Obito frowned. "What?"

"Throw some more." Kakashi started walking towards a nearby tree as he spoke. "I'll watch and tell you what's wrong."

"Why do you- what are you doing?"

Kakashi had walked a few feet up the tree as though it were simply more horizontal ground. He bent himself backwards and looked at Obito upside-down.

"If I help you throw better, will you teach me how to make a fireball? I'd like to know how to make a fireball." He looked down at his own feet. "Oh, it is different."

"What?"

"Hmm? Oh. Just something I was thinking about earlier." He looked back at Obito. "So will you teach me how to do a fireball? It doesn't have to be today. I have other things I want to try today."

Obito scratched his head. "Well. It's supposed to be something only my clan knows." He regarded Kakashi for a moment. "Would you teach me how to do that, too?" He pointed at Kakashi's feet. "Climbing stuff like that? That looks cool."

"It is cool," said Kakashi.

Obito snorted. He had apparently entirely recovered from his brief crying jag, and he furrowed his brow in contemplation. Kakashi let him think about it for a few seconds.

"So," said Kakashi, "I teach you to throw better and climb trees, and you'll teach me the fireball jutsu?"

Obito nodded slowly. "Okay. But you can't tell anybody I taught you okay? It's a secret technique."

Kakashi had liked the idea of learning to do a fireball plenty all by itself, but a secret fireball seemed somehow even better.

"Okay, it's a deal," said Kakashi.

Kakashi stuck out an arm and Obito, after some complicated arithmetic to figure out how to grip the proffered upside-down limb, shook it. Kakashi grunted in satisfaction.

"Good. So you throw, and I'll watch from up there." He pointed higher in the tree. "I want to see how long I can stay upside-down."

Without waiting for a response, Kakashi wandered further up the tree. As he went, he took note of the different texture of the wet bark and the slightly altered way he needed to focus his chakra to stick to it. He had to output a tiny bit more chakra than usual, and it needed to be in in a wider and more jagged chakra shape around his feet. Kakashi carefully observed this and made a mental note of it so that he'd never forget. Kakashi often forgot a lot of things that other people thought were important, but if it was really important Kakashi would just tell himself to remember, and he would.

Kakashi wasn't sure what he thought of his new training partner yet. Obito seemed like the sort of person who was always loud, and in Kakashi's experience loud people weren't much good at things. Yet, Obito could do a fireball, and Kakashi didn't think even his father knew how to do a fireball; it was a conundrum.

 

Obito watched the other boy disappear into foliage of the higher branches with a confusing mix of emotions in his chest. He'd wanted a training partner, sure, but he hadn't exactly been hoping for a smug little kid who ordered him around. He was a bit worried about teaching him the Uchiha fireball technique, too, but... he looked back at what was left of the tree after his temper tantrum and saw the kid's kunai still sticking out of it. If Kakashi could teach him to throw like that and also teach him how to climb up trees... maybe his clan would start taking Obito seriously. Maybe he'd get to go on some real missions. It was worth the risk.

"You still there, Baka-kashi?"

"Mm-hmm."

Obito searched the treetops again, but he couldn't see him anywhere. Weird kid. He shrugged and started picking up his kunai again. Things couldn't end up any worse than they had with him training on his own, at any rate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi and Obito's relative ages are... muddled in canon. While I think Kishimoto ultimately wanted them to be the same age, mathematically Kakashi should be around 4 years younger. Personally, I love Kakashi as a smug little kid half the age of his fellow genin, so that's how I'm playing it.


	3. Making Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys adjust their training regimens to fit around each other.

It was late morning the next day and Konoha's young genin were training in a large field that had been cleared for the purpose beside the hokage's office building. Yuhi Shinku, a dark-haired jonin with striking red eyes, supervised the children's sparring with wooden seriousness.

"Stop! Good work Kakashi, Guy! Shake hands."

Kakashi waited for Guy to get to his feet, then obediently shook his hand. For some reason, this made Shinku's expression turn even more serious.

"It's impolite to not help your sparring partner get to their feet, Kakashi," said Shinku.

Kakashi made a face. "I didn't hit him that hard. He can get up on his own."

"Your instinct must be to help your comrades at all times," said Shinku. "The success of a mission depends on your team's continued well-being, both mental and physical."

Guy struck a pose and flexed his biceps. "Don't worry Mr. Shinkui! Getting back up on my own is good training!"

Kakashi tsked. "You say everything is good training."

"Because everything is!"

There were four other genin boys apart from Guy, and one solitary girl with red eyes like their teacher - a relative of Shinku's, probably. Kakashi had only begun training with them in the last few days and didn't know their names, nor was he interested enough in them to ask. Not for the first time that morning, Kakashi wished he was training with Obito in the forest instead of here with these other genin. Obito was loud, but at least there weren't six of him, and Obito hadn't thus far tried to make Kakashi do a bunch of boring drills over and over.

Kakashi hadn't seen Obito since he'd bumped into him in the forest yesterday. He hadn't seen him any other time before, either, which struck Kakashi as unfair. His father made him train with the other genin every single day! Kakashi wanted to ask Obito how he'd managed this state of affairs, and see whether the same tactic could be used on Sakumo.

"Kakashi!"

Kakashi looked up at his teacher. Judging from the look on Shinku's face, this wasn't the first time his teacher had said his name, or even the second or third. Oh well. Kakashi didn't care to pay attention to boring things.

"Mmm?" said Kakashi.

Would Kakashi have time to find Obito later? Maybe if he did, Obito would start teaching him the fireball technique.

Shinku folded his arms across his chest. "Are we boring you, Kakashi?"

"Yes," said Kakashi absent-mindedly. "Can you show us a ninjutsu?"

Shinku startled, looking offended. He drew in a deep breath to yell, but deflated when the other children gabbled excitedly overtop of him.

"Oh! A ninjutsu!"

"Can you show us one?"

Kakashi rested his head ponderously on one hand. "It ended in tiger."

Shinku shot Kakashi a warning look that the boy completely failed to notice.

"What did?" asked a boy with a red bandage across his nose.

"The fire technique I saw," said Kakashi. "It went... horse-boar-tiger?" Kakashi tried it out. "No. Boar-horse-tiger. There were more before those but I can't remember. And then fire came out of his mouth." Kakashi looked hopefully at the teacher. "Can you do that?"

"My dad could," said a boy with a white vest.

The boy with the red bandage snorted. "No duh, Asuma, he's the hokage."

Kakashi's ears perked up at that. "Your dad's the hokage?"

The boy in the white vest, Asuma, laughed. "Of course! You didn't know?"

Kakashi shrugged.

The red-eyed girl gave Asuma a poke in the side. "He's still new to Konoha, Asuma. Leave him alone."

"Will you do a ninjutsu though, teacher?" asked a tidy-looking boy who wore small circular sunglasses.

"Today is taijutsu class," said Shinku, annoyed.

"I want to see a fireball!" said the boy with the red bandage.

The clamour for a nintechnique demonstration increased steadily in volume, until a senior Leaf ninja suddenly appeared out of thin air next to Shinku, interrupting the debate. Shinku was visibly relieved.

"Sorry to interrupt, sir," said the newcomer. "All of the jonin have been summoned to the hokage's office. There's been an incident."

Shinku nodded. "I'll be there in a moment." He turned to the students. "Continue your training independently for the rest of the day. I'll be checking your progress tomorrow, so don't slack off."

The class groaned as one and Shinku disappeared into thin air in that way all the senior ninja had apparently mastered. It seemed to Kakashi to have been unnecessary, given that the taijutsu practice was being held directly beside the hokage's office. It would have been less than a minute to walk to the entrance. Perhaps it was a matter of style.

Kakashi squinted speculatively at the sky. Not quite noon yet. His father was a jonin and would also be at the hokage's office, which meant Kakashi could slip away and check for Obito again. He grunted in satisfaction.

Someone tapped him gently on the shoulder.

"Kakashi?" said the red-eyed girl. "Do you want to come have lunch with us?"

Kakashi looked behind her and saw Asuma and the boy with the red bandage across his nose. He shook his head.

"No thanks," he said. "I have someone I need to meet soon."

"Oh? Okay. Maybe tomorrow, then?"

"Maybe," said Kakashi.

Which way through the forest would be the quickest to get to the meeting-place? Kakashi had taken a different route on the way home than he had to get there, to get a feel for the terrain, but there were other routes still to explore. Perhaps he could try going above that little waterfall this time...

The other Konoha genin watched Kakashi wander away without properly finishing the conversation. They exchanged glances.

"Weird kid," said Asuma.

"Definitely," said the boy with the red bandage, whose name was Raido.

Kurenai shrugged. "He'll come around eventually. Come on - let's go have lunch!"

*

Obito and Rin sat on top of the large boulder that they both referred to as the "lunch rock," and shared a bento between themselves. It tasted quite good despite Obito's deep suspicion that it was healthy, but then Rin could do everything well as far as Obito was concerned. Rin's surprise appearance with lunch in hand had put Obito in high spirits, and so he was content to chew on a rice ball and listen to Rin complain at length about her fellow medic-ninja.

"-he nearly nicked the artery, the dolt! Teacher gave him such a lecture."

"Mmm," said Obito, agreeably.

"I know it's only a sheep, and only practice, but that's no reason to not take things seriously! It makes me worry that's how he'd act for real. At least, how he'd act if Inko were there to show off for."

Rin made an intensely disgusted expression at the thought. Obito chased a grain of rice around the bento box.

"Do, uh. Do you like him?'

'What!?' Rin turned beet red. "T-tamaki? No! No way! I mean. He's good-looking, okay, but he's an idiot!"

"Oh. Uh. Okay." Obito coughed. "Anyway, um. So why does he-"

"Yo!"

Obito and Rin both turned at the sound. Kakashi strode into the clearing, one hand in his pocket and the other held up in a lazy greeting.

"Oh! Kakashi!" said Obito. "This is Kakashi," he added helpfully to Rin. "Kakashi, this is my friend Rin."

Kakashi nodded his head at her. Rin frowned.

"Your name is Kakashi?" said Rin.

Kakashi hopped up onto the lunch rock and plunked down next to them.

"Yep," he said.

Rin squinted at him. "I've never heard of anyone named Kakashi before."

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, now you have."

"What clan are you from?" persisted Rin.

"Hatake."

"Hatake?" Rin scratched her head. "I don't know that one."

"Don't look at me," said Obito.

"I wouldn't," said Rin. "You never know anything."

"Hey!"

"Well, it's just me and my dad," said Kakashi. "So it's not like it's a big clan any more."

"Any more?" said Obito.

"Used to be bigger, my dad says. All dead now, though, I guess. 'Cept me and my dad." Kakashi scratched his head. "Can you teach me the fireball technique now?"

Mouth full, Obito gestured expansively at the remaining food in front of him to indicate that matters were entirely out of his hands. Kakashi groaned theatrically and let himself flop onto his back.

"This morning was boring and now you're being boring!"

"You've been here less than a minute," said Rin.

"Ughh!"

Kakashi rolled backwards into a handstand and began walking around the rock on his hands. Rin raised an eyebrow at Obito.

"This weird little kid is your friend?"

"Uhh..." said Obito.

Kakashi hopped from the lunch rock onto a nearby tree branch using his arms, his legs still dangling in the air above him. With effort, he straightened out his legs so that his toes pointed upwards, then did a controlled flip around the branch. He did something complicated with his hands that Obito couldn't quite follow, flipped all the way around the branch again in the opposite direction, then settled on the branch with his legs crossed beneath him and his hands on his lap as though he were simply sitting on an ordinary surface. Kakashi scrunched his nose under his mask.

"I'm not little," said Kakashi. "I'm five."

Rin rolled her eyes. "Ooh, pardon me."

"You're pretty good at that stuff though," said Obito. "The tree climbing and flips and that."

"Thanks," said Kakashi. "I know."

Rin snorted again. Kakashi eyed her.

"What can _you_ do?"

"Rin's a medic ninja!" said Obito proudly, before Rin could answer.

Kakashi raised his eyebrows. "You're a medic?"

"A _trainee_ medic, yes," said Rin.

"My dad says it's hard to be a good medic," said Kakashi thoughtfully. "You need to have really accurate chakra control and steady nerves, he says."

Obito puffed himself up proudly. "Yep! Rin's great."

Rin blushed. "I'm not a good medic yet! I'm just in training!"

"But you will be," said Obito. "You're always studying books and practicing new techniques and stuff. Your teacher said you were her best student, and she's got students much older than you. You're bound to be a good medic!"

Kakashi nodded at her in approval. Rin was suddenly very busy tidying up the empty food containers.

"Speaking of which," she said, "I ought to go back now. Teacher said she wanted to show me how to mix poison antidotes."

Obito nudged Kakashi's knees and mouthed "see?" at him, which Rin did her best to ignore. Foodware safely packed away, Rin stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder. She smirked at them both mischievously.

"You two kids have fun with your training now," she said, then trotted away before their joint protests could reach her ears.

Obito watched her go. Rin was nice, but she wasn't Uchiha; Tsubaki had told him this once. The statement rose unbidden to the surface of Obito's mind, but he hadn't figured out exactly what Tsubaki had meant by saying it. Nice, but not Uchiha. What did it matter if Rin was Uchiha or not?

"Can you teach me the fireball now?" said Kakashi.

Rin disappeared around a bend in the path. Obito shook himself out of his strange thoughts.

"Yeah, all right."

Kakashi hopped down from his tree branch. "I can show you how to go up trees after you show me the fireball, so we'll both have something to practice."

"It'll take a while to learn," warned Obito.

Kakashi shrugged. "I learn fast."

"If you say so," said Obito. "I'll show you the hand signs first, okay? So, it goes Tiger, Snake, Ram..."

*

Kakashi stayed and trained with Obito for the whole afternoon. He'd been right: training with Obito was much better than training with the other genin. After Obito showed him the hand signs for the fireball, Kakashi had shown Obito how to gather chakra around his feet. Kakashi had to correct Obito's first few attempts, but after that the two of them left each other alone and focused on their own training.

This suited Kakashi perfectly, since half of learning a new technique was figuring out how to think about it. Kakashi liked to take an idea and poke at it from different directions until it worked. A fireball was interesting to think about; it could damage an opponent, but also damage the user or the surrounding area. It was making something dangerous into something controllable. Kakashi liked that.

Kakashi did spare the occasional glance to check on Obito's progress. Obito wasn't particularly good at tree-climbing, but he also didn't whine about not being good at it like some of the other genin did. He hadn't been able to get much higher than what a person normally could without chakra, but he'd kept at it despite the many tumbles he took. He had shown no signs of stopping even after Kakashi had used up all his own chakra and left for home.

Endurance, thought Kakashi. That was the one thing he'd never had. It had improved as he'd gotten older, but not as much as Kakashi wished it would. He had so many ideas of what he wanted to do, but his body simply wouldn't allow it. He had learned careful control over his chakra to make up for it, but his dad always reminded him that there were other people with better control than him and more chakra. Obito was obviously one of those people with more chakra, and once he learned to control it... well. That would be a long ways off, if Kakashi was any fit judge.

The sun was close to the horizon when Kakashi finally arrived home. He'd taken a few detours on the way back to catalogue good hiding spots and vantage points for future use. He'd been worried when his father had first told him they'd be living him Konoha for good, because he thought he'd get bored of being in the same place all the time. Kakashi knew now that his fears had been unfounded. Forests were full of hidden things, and Konoha turned out to be bigger and contain more of them than Kakashi had first thought.

Just as Kakashi was about to enter his house, his father poked his head around the corner and waved to him.

"Oh, Kakashi," said Sakumo, "there you are! I didn't see you this afternoon. Were you off training by yourself again?"

"I'm not training by myself," said Kakashi. "I'm training with Obito and Rin."

"Obito? Rin?" his father frowned. "I don't know that I've heard of them. Which clan do they belong to?"

"Dunno."

"Well, what are their parents' names?"

"Dunno."

His father raised his eyebrows at him. "You didn't ask?"

Kakashi shrugged.

"How old are they?"

"Older than me. Nine I think."

"Are they strong?"

Kakashi considered this. "Rin's pretty good. She's learning medical stuff. Obito's not very good, but I think he's getting better. We've been practicing."

"Hmm."

Sakumo looked worried.

Kakashi folded his arms. "You're the one who said I ought to make friends."

A hint of a smile formed on his father's face. "You got me there. But am I right to assume you're training by yourselves?"

Kakashi nodded grudgingly.

"Training alone is dangerous. You might be attacked, or hurt yourselves training. Hurt badly enough that your friend Rin can't help you," he added, seeing his son's expression. "You're not going too far from the village, are you?"

"No," said Kakashi. "Just a little into the forest. Just a little!"

Sakumo considered his son for a few moments and then shook his head, smiling.

"Just promise me you'll be careful, and that you'll ask for help if you need it, okay? And no skipping your morning classes. You need to be able to work with everyone, not just your favourite people."

"Okay," said Kakashi. He turned to go out the door again.

"And Kakashi?"

Kakashi looked back at his father. "Hmm?"

A hand landed softly on his head and ruffled his hair, and Kakashi squawked indignantly. Sakumo laughed, and tugged his son into a one-armed hug.

"I'm glad you're making friends," said Sakumo. "I know it doesn't come easily to you."

Kakashi felt his face heat up. "Dad!"

Sakumo released him, and waved him away. "Go on, then. Wash up before dinner."

*

The sun had set by the time Obito got home, tired from his afternoon training with Kakashi. Obito liked to think he always put his all into his ninja training, but keeping himself from being one-upped by a five year old was uniquely motivating. The kid hadn't been joking when he'd said he was a fast learner. Kakashi hadn't managed a proper fireball yet, but Obito wouldn't be surprised if he figured it out by tomorrow. Kakashi had scalded his throat and lips a few times by the end, proving he'd clearly grasped the concept of making fire though not yet mastered its execution.

It had taken Obito weeks to learn the fireball technique. The rest of the clan had figured it out much more quickly than him of course, but even they'd taken longer than this. If Kakashi had been an Uchiha, thought Obito wryly, the clan elders would have called him a genius. It raised problems for Obito, though. Would Kakashi leave after learning the fireball technique, even if Obito hadn't improved his throws or learned to tree-climb?

Obito kicked his shoes off and flopped down face-first onto his bed. He'd have to get up to help his grandmother with dinner, but he could allow himself these few minutes of calm first. He stared at his well-worn ninja gear, which he'd dropped in a pile near the door.

The other Uchiha's genin's gear didn't look as dirty as Obito's did. He often saw them playing or chatting, or even dozing in the sun when he was on his way to his training spot in the forest. The other genin seemed to hardly have to try at all to be better ninjas than Obito. Why did Obito need to try so hard to be so average?

"Obito!" came his grandmother's yell from downstairs.

"Coming!"

Obito levered himself up from the bed. His grandmother always said that he was just a late-bloomer. One day, she said, he'd find his feet and when he did all his training would pay off. Obito hoped that she was right about this. He wouldn't be useless forever, he told himself firmly. One day, he would be a hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind my series retitling! I'd just been using my working title "Kakashi Feudal AU", but it occurred to me than "An Independent Uchiha" is a more apt choice. EDIT: assuming I can spell 'independent' correctly.


	4. Progressing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys improve; others take notice.

Kakashi's days began to form a pleasant rhythm. He would eat breakfast, go to the morning genin training, and then train the rest of the day with Obito. Rin would often turn up with lunch, and deigned once or twice to allow Obito pull her away from her medical texts to spar or climb trees with him. Mostly though, she studied in the shade and helpfully heckled Obito and Kakashi from the sidelines.

Fire was turning out to be more tricky to master than it had first seemed. Kakashi made good progress on his fireball in the first two days or practice, but hit a wall on day three and stuck there. He could make fire now but consistently too early, and was at a loss at how to resolve the problem.

"This stinks," said Kakashi.

Rin applied salve around his scorched mouth as he said this. It was a different tin from yesterday, and Kakashi suspected that Rin was using him as a guinea pig to test various burn salve mixtures for effectiveness. Rin sniffed the tin of salve in her hand.

"Smells okay to me."

"Not that," said Kakashi. "I mean I'm sick of the fireball going wrong. It's been days already!"

"It usually takes people in my clan a couple of weeks to learn," said Obito.

Obito had been making good progress with his own training over the past few days. He could make it quite far up the tree now, around 20 feet, and added another inch or two to the distance with each attempt. Obito was surprised by his own achievement in the face of Kakashi's comparative stagnation; it was usually Obito who was stuck while his peers got well ahead of him. He wondered whether Kakashi's non-Uchiha-ness was giving him some kind of handicap in learning an Uchiha technique.

Kakashi groaned. "Weeks? That's too long! It's practically forever!"

"Oh come on," said Rin. "You can't expect to fully learn a new technique after only a few tries. Elemental releases are more difficult, too."

Kakashi, who had indeed expected to, said nothing, and kept his arms folded and lips pouted while Rin finished. He'd given up on wearing his half-mask while learning the fireball technique, and he looked much younger without it. Obito unsuccessfully repressed a giggle at Kakashi's petulant expression. Kakashi glared down his nose at Obito, though given the older boy's superior height Kakashi had to tilt his head back almost horizontal to do so convincingly.

"I can learn techniques out of books easy," said Kakashi. "You're probably not explaining it properly."

"I- probably," said Obito, suddenly sheepish. "Nobody ever explained it to me either, so I probably don't know the right words."

Kakashi blinked, somewhat off-balance. He'd expected Obito to argue with him, not give in.

"What d'you mean, nobody ever explained it to you properly? How'd you learn it then?"

Obito shrugged. "My teachers never explain stuff to me properly. They always act like I ought to know already somehow. Though, everyone else always _does_ seem to know already, apart from me. I dunno. Eventually they stopped really trying to teach me things and I figured it was best to train by myself and figure stuff out on my own." He scratched the ground idly with the toe of his sandal. "I guess I'm just dumb."

Kakashi didn't know what to say to that. Obito returned to his tree-climbing amidst the embarrassed silence and Rin went back to her books, leaving Kakashi to contemplate. Obito didn't seem dumb to Kakashi, or at least no worse than the other Konoha genin. Perhaps he'd simply been unlucky in his teachers? It sounded like his clan liked to teach its own students, though by the sounds of things they ought to have just let Mr. Shinku do it after all. Mr. Shinku certainly didn't settle for people not knowing how to do things. Obito didn't look like he wanted to be asked about further details, however, so Kakashi returned to his training.

In the back of his mind, though, Kakashi marked down Obito's claim of stupidity as something not quite right. It felt like half of a mystery, and Kakashi resolved to keep an eye out for the appearance of the other half.

*

The next morning, which was a little over a week after he'd met Obito, Kakashi showed up for genin training as usual to discover that today they were to do self-directed ninjutsu practice. Kakashi was immediately suspicious. Apart from Mr Shinku, there were four more adults observing their training today. Two of them Kakashi recognized - one was Mr. Minato, who sometimes went on missions with his dad, and the other was the hokage, whose funny hat was easy to spot. The other people were a blonde-haired woman and a dark-haired man with bandages over one eye who Kakashi didn't know.

Kakashi couldn't think of a reason for them to be here. Mr. Minato had filled in for Mr. Shinku once before, but he'd been teaching that time, not watching. The hokage often observed them from his office balcony when he wanted to take a break, but he was usually too busy to come down. Curious, Kakashi trained close enough to them to eavesdrop.

"They're so young," said Mr. Minato softly.

The hokage blew a smoke ring. "I don't like it any more than you do," he said. "But the Uchiha have forced our hand. Too many of us are away on missions."

Kakashi was familiar with the Uchiha name, although he'd never met one before. His father had told him they were a clan that lived near Konoha, and were their own little village. As far as Kakashi understood it the Uchiha and Konoha had often fought in the past, but both of them agreed to stop fighting each other years ago. Kakashi didn't know why they'd stopped, because he didn't know why they'd been fighting in the first place. It must have been over something important though, he reasoned, because otherwise all the fighting and carrying-on would have been quite silly.

Kakashi sighed. He wanted to be practicing the fireball technique but it was a secret, which meant he shouldn't practice it in front of everyone. So instead he was practicing his clone technique and body replacement technique, which were easy, and he was starting to get bored. Then he remembered something Asuma had said the other day, and brightened. He trotted over to the watching adults.

"Mm, you're Asuma's dad, right?" said Kakashi, to the hokage.

The hokage puffed another cloud of smoke and smiled at him. "Yes, that's right."

Mr. Minato smiled. "His only claim to fame."

The hokage snorted. The blonde lady peered down at Kakashi.

"Is this the White Fang's son?" she asked.

The hokage nodded. "Yes, this is Kakashi."

The blonde lady poked Kakashi in the forehead. "He's a genin? How old is he?"

"Five," said Kakashi, annoyed that they were speaking as though he wasn't there.

The blonde lady tsked in disapproval, but the dark-haired man with the bandage over one eye peered down at Kakashi with interest. Kakashi sensed that they were about to get off-topic, as adults often did, so he cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Asuma said you can breathe fire," said Kakashi, to the hokage. "Can I see? I want to learn to do that."

"Oho!" said the hokage. "Fire? Elemental releases are quite difficult to get a hang of, you know. Useful, though." He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm. Which would be a good one to show you?"

Kakashi perked up. "You'll show me?"

"Of course, of course! The younger generation is the future of the village! One has to pass along knowledge if they want to help to assure that future." The hokage pocketed his pipe.

Mr. Shinku cleared his throat. "Is that entirely wise, hokage, sir? Kakashi is clever, I'll admit, but he's still very young. And fire in particular is a bit... unsafe."

Hokage flapped a hand at him. "You're always such a worrier, young Yuhi! We have the finest medic-nin in the country with us right now in any case, hmm, Tsunade?"

He directed this comment at the blonde lady, who rolled her eyes.

"I'd like to avoid resuscitating five-year-olds on my days off if it could possibly be avoided, Sarutobi."

The hokage laughed. "Quite the peanut gallery we have today! Pay them no mind, young Kakashi, I'm sure we won't be putting Tsunade to any trouble today in any case."

Tsunade grunted, but Kakashi thought he could see a hint of a smile on her face.

"Now then," continued the hokage, "could you stand over there by Minato, please, young Kakashi?"

Kakashi obediently stepped out of the way, his eyes fixed on the hokage to keep from missing anything. The hokage glanced over at him to make sure he was looking, then carefully signed four seals - Snake, Dragon, Rabbit, Tiger - and exhaled. A thin stream of flame poured from the hokage's mouth in a solid, steady line for several seconds, and then stopped. Most of the flames had hit the small patch of dirt the hokage had aimed them at, but a few stray sparks had caught on some flammable greenery, and tiny flames burned for a few moments after the technique finished before fizzling out. The hokage looked at Kakashi expectantly.

"Hmm? What do you think?"

It seemed to have more or less the same idea as the fireball Obito was teaching him to do, but shaped differently.

"Snake, Dragon, Rabbit, Tiger?" said Kakashi.

The hokage smiled. "Yes, you've got it. You have to gather the chakra in your stomach, and then knead it into fire as you exhale." He gave Kakashi a pleasant, encouraging look. "Don't worry if that doesn't make sense right away. These things take time."

Kakashi considered this. Obito had told him to hold the chakra in his stomach and 'bake it' into fire chakra. He'd thought that meant it turned into fire in his stomach, but what the hokage had said sounded more like it happened on the way out. Kakashi decided to try this new second way. He made the hand signs - Snake, Dragon, Rabbit, Tiger - and as he did so he built up ordinary chakra in his stomach. On the final sign he reached for where he could feel his fire chakra sitting, near his throat, and instead of mixing it as hard as he had when training with Obito he folded it into the chakra he'd built up, like mixing flour into bread. He exhaled, imagining a rope of flame like the hokage had made.

Before it even made it out of his mouth, Kakashi knew he'd done it right. It must be how the mixing worked, thought Kakashi, as the flame streamed out. Too much mixing meant the fire happened too early, and not enough mixing meant the fire didn't happen at all. The trick was to fold it as he had done, so that it mixed itself the rest of the way on the way out and became a flame outside his body.

Kakashi breathed out the rest of the chakra he'd folded, feeling pleased with himself. His attempt had been shorter and weaker than the one the hokage had made, resulting in a droopier arc than he'd planned on, but it was a good start. He felt confident that he'd be able to show Obito a proper fireball this afternoon, and even better: he'd be able to experiment to see what he could do with both of these new techniques.

He glanced up to see all five adults staring at him. Kakashi stuck his hands in his pockets.

"Was that okay?"

The man with the bandages over one eye scoffed, while Mr. Minato and Mr. Shinku exchanged an odd look. The hokage beamed at him.

"It was very well done indeed, young Hatake!" said the hokage. "I'm quite impressed. You're a very quick study."

"I'm surprised you managed it at all, never mind so easily," said Minato. "I didn't learn my first elemental release until I was more than twice your age!"

Kakashi preened under the compliments. The man with the bandages over one eye turned to the hokage.

"He'd pair well with Asuma and Kurenai," said the man.

The other adults gave Kakashi a worried look then, which Kakashi didn't understand. The hokage slowly nodded.

"You're quite right, Danzo. Minato, why don't you try teaming them together and running them through some formations?"

Minato saluted. "Yes, sir. Come on, Kakashi."

"Come now, Tsunade," said the hokage, as Kakashi was hustled away, "don't look so glum. It's only a precaution. I doubt they'll be needed."

Kakashi twisted his head and caught a glimpse of the expression on Tsunade's face. She looked... something. Unhappy? Worried? Tired? Kakashi had to turn back around to see where he was going, and couldn't be sure. Perhaps he had imagined it.

*

Obito had woken up that morning with the intention of continuing his usual routine of scrounging for missions, or, when that inevitably failed, finding useful chores to do around the village. However, he was interrupted while he was eating breakfast.  
  
"Group training?" said Obito.

The young chunin who usually ran the mission table, Uchiha Aki, stood in the doorway of the small house Obito shared with his grandmother. She nodded in response to Obito's question.

"All the genin are to meet in the training yard in half an hour. Order from the elders."

"How come?"

Aki shrugged. "Dunno. You know how the elders are."

Obito did. The Uchiha elders often made strange decisions without any explanation, and never reversed them. This often extended to personal judgements of a particular Uchiha's character, as Obito unfortunately knew from personal experience. The elders could be subtle when they wished to be, but their opinion of Obito's talents, or rather his lack thereof, was well-known among the clan and frequently expressed.

Some of the elders, like uncle Fugaku, were not in fact particularly old, but had earned their title through proven battle prowess and sound judgement. Supposedly, anyway. Obito was pretty sure Uchiha Furama was only an elder because he was Madara's son, since Furama was far too nervous and jumpy to be a good ninja. It was the private opinion of many Uchiha, including Obito, that Madara's choice to skip Furama and name Tsubaki and her younger sister Ume as his heirs was a good one.

So it was with some trepidation that Obito arrived at the training grounds, not entirely sure what to expect. The other genin turned up scrubbed clean and in full mission garb, but Obito hadn't bothered. It was the one advantage of already being held in disgrace by the elders: he could hardly be regarded worse than he already was. So he'd worn slightly old but comfortable clothes, and wore his ninja tools in his usual way.

The other genin muttered about this to each other when he arrived, but Obito ignored them. Rin trained separately with the special medical squad and thus would not be present, so instead Obito searched the small crowd of genin for Kakashi's silver puff of hair, without success. Maybe he was off on a mission of some kind. Obito assumed Kakashi often got missions, which was why he hardly ever saw him around.

Actually, had he _ever_ seen Kakashi around the village? He hadn't really thought about it, but Obito didn't actually know much about Kakashi. Obito had been so focused on his training that he hadn't talked to him much, and Kakashi had been content to keep to himself in kind. He'd try to talk with him properly the next time they saw each other, decided Obito. Perhaps he could invite the younger boy over for dinner - his grandmother would like that.

The elders arrived, a few clearly displeased with Obito's state of attire, but said nothing. Eventually elder Mirai, the most senior elder, stepped forward and cast a calculating look over the collected genin before speaking.

"We're evaluating your progress today," she said. "It will be one-on-one sparring bouts. The losers of each match will sit here," she indicated a bench to her left, "and the winners, here." She gestured to a bench on her right. "Elder Fugaku will referee."

Uncle Fugaku stepped forward. "Either incapacitate your opponent or push them out of bounds to win. I'll intervene if I feel things are getting out of hand. Any questions?"

"No, elders," intoned the genin.

Obito did not join in answering. He could tell that there was more to this training exercise than they were letting on, but the elders did not in actual fact intend to answer any questions, and would consider anyone who did try to ask one an irredeemable fool. They gave out as little information as was required at all times, allegedly for the safety of the village, but Obito wondered about that sometimes. Wouldn't it be easier to just tell everyone what they expected of them?

Elder Mirai had noticed Obito's lack of enthusiasm.

"Uchiha Obito. You will go first."

"Yes, ma'am," said Obito.

It hardly mattered to Obito whether he went first or last, although going first at least meant he wasn't trapped in glum anticipation for very long. The other genin were about his age, but had been genin for longer than him, and Obito was under no illusions as to his ability to beat any of them. Obito had only managed to scrape through the exam a few months ago, while almost all the other genin had graduated at least a year ago. The only exception to this was Yuki, who'd passed at the same time as Obito, but she was also two years younger than him.

"Obito will be against Hiro."

Obito couldn't contain the glare he shot at elder Mirai, who returned it with a bland smile. Hiro was twelve and more than qualified to already be a chuunin, but he had missed the last two exams due to injuries he'd incurred on missions. He was a foot taller than Obito, and probably near to double his weight.

Obito took his position in the sparring ring, standing at one line while Hiro took up the other.

"I'm gonna pound you into paste," said Hiro, conversationally.

"Probably," said Obito.

Obito had never understood exactly what he'd done to earn the elders' ire. He got along reasonably well with the rest of his clan, but the elders hated him. The only exception among them was his uncle Fugaku, who regarded Obito with the same calm neutrality as he did everyone else. Fugaku was still new as an elder though, so probably the others would eventually clue him into their distaste.

There was one upside to fighting Hiro: it would be less mortifying to lose to him than it was to lose to five-year-old Kakashi. Obito and Kakashi had sparred a few times now, and Kakashi had won each time. The younger boy was small, fast, and apparently made of rubber from the way he could roll and bounce to recover on the few occasions Obito had actually managed to hit him.

Obito and Hiro bowed to each other from their respective positions with Fugaku's refereeing arm between them. Fugaku glanced between them both.

"Ready?" said Fugaku. "Begin!"

Obito focused his chakra to his feet even before Fugaku told them to begin, and as soon as Fugaku got out of the way Obito shot forward towards Hiro. To Obito's complete surprise, he actually succeeded in popping Hiro hard in the face with a well-placed punch. He'd expected Hiro to dodge quickly out of the way, like Kakashi did, but Hiro hadn't.

Hiro staggered and dropped his guard, and Obito took the opportunity to dip low and sweep the boy's legs out from under him. Hiro landed hard on his back with an "oof," but came to his senses in time to roll out of the way of Obito's next blow. Obito spotted Hiro starting to sign for a fireball, and quickly mirrored it. He couldn't see why Hiro would try a fireball in this situation, but it worked in Obito's favour.

Obito's fireball came a heartbeat after Hiro's, but Obito wasn't trying to head-on counter Hiro's technique anyway. He'd aimed his at Hiro's legs, and simply ducked underneath Hiro's fireball. He felt the heat on the back of his neck and smelled some singed hair, but this stopped abruptly when Hiro began to howl. Obito unthinkingly closed the distance between them with another chakra-fueled dash.

The match was called to a halt after Obito had positioned himself over the pained Hiro with a fist pulled back, ready to strike. Obito stood back to let Fugaku check on Hiro, who then beckoned the medic-nin on the sidelines to come and lift Hiro out.

"Obito wins," said Fugaku.

There was an immediate tumult from the other genin.

"What?"

"Did that just happen?"

"Since when can Obito beat anyone in a fight?"

"How did he-"

Elder Mirai's voice cut through the din. "Enough."

The genin immediately quieted.

"The next pair is Genki and Yuki," continued elder Mirai.

Obito wandered somewhat dreamily over to the victor's bench, trying to understand what had happened. How had he beaten Hiro when he couldn't even beat Kakashi? He looked across the training yard at Hiro, whose legs were being treated on the sidelines by the medic-nin. He'd never hit Kakashi with a fireball before, though he'd attempted to. Kakashi had criticized him for trying it in the middle of a close-ranged fight at all, and had informed Obito that hand-signs were too slow and telegraphed his intentions too clearly. Obito had had to ask him what 'telegraphed' meant.

Hiro hadn't expected much of a fight from Obito, because Obito always lost. The first blow had caught him off-guard, and Obito had followed up quickly enough to press that advantage. It had been luck; if they fought again Hiro would be likely more prepared and put up a better fight.

"My dad says you don't get second chances in real fights," Kakashi had told Obito, after the other day's fireball attempt, "so you should fight for real every time. The time you think you don't have to take it seriously is the time you're dead, my dad says."

"Your dad says a lot of things," Obito had said, irritated at having been knocked over again. He'd said it to try and rile Kakashi up, but the kid had just giggled.

Now, Obito looked down at his hands. Kakashi was cocky, but he was right, too. Obito had gotten so used to Kakashi's no-nonsense approach to sparring that he'd begun to take things more seriously too. It felt... strange, to have won. Even after he'd explained it to himself, Obito found he still couldn't quite understand it.

He looked up to see the elders looking at him contemplatively. Obito quickly looked away. Other people might be pleased by their attention, but it had never been a good thing for Obito. He doubted a single won match was enough to improve his standing in their eyes.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder, and Obito jumped. A tall, pretty teenaged girl stood beside him, dressed in a pristine Uchiha kimoni and haori. Obito relaxed.

"Oh, hullo Tsubaki," said Obito.

"Look at you on the winner's bench," she said, elbowing him playfully before sitting down next to him.

Obito blushed. "I uh. It was mostly luck, I think."

"Luck's good," said Tsubaki. "You only have to be lucky once in a real fight."

This echoed a similar enough sentiment to what Kakashi had told him before that Obito felt comforted.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Filling in for grandfather."

"Oh. Of course." Obito paused. "What's going on, Tsubaki? What're the elders up to?"

Tsubaki glanced at the elders, then lowered her voice, though she kept her face calm as though she were commenting on the weather. "Can't say much. But there's gonna be a scrap soon."

Obito glanced at the sparring ring, where Genki and Yuki were just finishing up their own bout. "We're only genin."

The 'we' in this statement did not include Tsubaki, who was already a jonin. She nodded.

"We've been provoked by an enemy who has us somewhat outnumbered."

Obito felt his heart pound in his chest. "Konoha?"

Tsubaki stood up suddenly, a smile on her face. "You'll have your Sharingan in no time, at this rate!" she said brightly.

It was a complete non-sequitur, indicating that the secret element of the conversation was now over. Tsubaki patted Obito heartily on the back, then walked away towards the elders. Obito watched her go, his stomach roiling.

"All right, Obito?" said Genki, who sat beside him on the winner's bench, sporting a fat lip.

Obito didn't answer him.


	5. Enlightenment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi, Rin, and Obito meet up at the training spot to discuss their recent successes, but a problem is quickly discovered.

Obito made his way to the training spot with a spring in his step. The winners of the sparring bouts yesterday had remained in the training area and been assigned to squads, each squad headed by an Uchiha village jonin. Genki was on Obito's squad, as well as a shy girl named Maa. Obito's jonin leader turned out to be Tsubaki, to his surprise. He and Genki and Maa had gone through the basic team training exercises together, and Obito discovered he could keep up with them much better than he'd predicted. He began to wonder, distantly, whether his victory over Hiro was actually a fluke.

The new genin teams were dismissed afterwards and informed that they were on call against future need, and free to carry on as usual until then. This suited Obito fine. When watching the others spar, he'd noticed that not even any of his fellow Uchiha seemed on par with little Kakashi's speed and maneuverability. Most of the genin had better chakra control than Obito but still not so well as Kakashi, at least by Obito's reckoning.

It raised questions. Kakashi was only five and clearly an impressive sort of genius, but no one seemed to know anything about him. Neither Genki nor Maa had even heard of him, and though Maa was shy, Genki was cheerful and popular and frequently up-to-date on the latest gossip. He certainly should have known Kakashi, but he didn't. A ball of worry had begun to form in Obito's stomach. 

If Kakashi and his father weren't part of the Uchiha clan, then there was only one possible conclusion to draw: that they were unaffiliated outsiders. Obito sighed. It made things difficult. Although, if Kakashi's father had anything close to his son's genius then he'd make a valuable addition to the Uchiha clan. Odd that he'd remain unaffiliated if he was so skilled. Perhaps, thought Obito, he simply hadn't received an offer yet. Obito didn't have to authority to make such an offer, but Obito might be able to suggest the idea to one party or the other. Perhaps Uncle Fugaku would listen to him.

Rin popped out of the woods next to him, making him jump.

"Ah! Oh. Hi, Rin."

Rin giggled. "You should pay more attention, Obito. You were miles away."

Obito coughed unconvincingly. "So, uh, you training with me and Kakashi today?"

"Yes." Rin's face turned suddenly serious. "Kakashi. I've been meaning to talk to you about him, Obito."

"Oh?" Obito tried to ignore the worried twist his stomach gave.

Rin inhaled deeply. "I've been asking around about him, Obito. No one knows who he is. I... don't think he's from the Uchiha clan."

Obito nodded glumly. "Yeah. You too, huh?. Must be unaffiliated, I guess."

"Ye-es," said Rin slowly. "Could be. Have you tried asking about his clan?"

"Oh. No. I can't remember the name of it, actually."

"Ah."

"Have you asked, then?"

Rin shrugged noncommittally. "I asked Ms Mikoto yesterday but..." she shrugged again. "I think I must have gotten the clan name wrong. I'll ask him again today."

Obito tried to remember what Kakashi's clan name had been. Kanata? Karate? Haruno? Obito had never had a great memory for names. He doubted it was important anyway - Kakashi was Kakashi. Obito couldn't imagine that Kakashi's clan name could affect Obito's opinion of him much.

*

Obito was going to be _very_ surprised, thought Kakashi happily, as he trotted towards their forest training area after lunch. Mr Minato had drilled Kakashi and his new team on formations all day yesterday, apparently in preparation for short patrols their little team would start going on in a few days time. Kakashi was looking forward to proper ninja work for a change, unlike pulling cats out of trees or doing grocery shopping for old ladies. They might, if they were very lucky, even get to do some fighting.

Kakashi's enthusiasm for drilling with Asuma and Kurenai after a full day of it yesterday had flagged by this morning, and he'd slipped away from the training yard during lunch break. Kakashi had memorized the formations by now anyway, though Asuma and Kurenai still struggled with a few of them. The two of them would probably do better if they didn't stop to bicker every few minutes. Asuma had a habit of letting his focus drift whenever he was being given instructions and Kurenai would yell at him whenever she caught him at it, to which Asuma would defend himself indignantly, insisting he _had_ been listening. Kakashi had a suspicion that Kurenai was only so argumentative because she, too, was bored of drills and wanted a distraction.

The two of them seemed competent enough otherwise, and Kakashi certainly preferred them over some of the other genin. Guy in particular seemed like he would make an alarming teammate with his tendency to try to outdo everyone in both enthusiasm and volume, and some of the others could be a bit snooty about the age difference between them and Kakashi. He would have preferred to pair up with Obito and Rin, of course, but they hadn't been at the training session.

Rin would make an excellent teammate for anyone. She was clever and patient and easy to like, and of course learning medical skills. Kakashi wondered if he ought to learn some medical techniques himself, since neither Kurenai nor Asuma seemed inclined towards it. Genin were all trained in basic first aid, but it would be useful to know how to heal a little. Kakashi thought he had good enough chakra control to manage something simple, maybe. He'd ask Rin about it.

Obito was, tactically, an admittedly weirder choice of teammate. Yes, Obito was almost as loud as Gai and and prone to crying at the slightest provocation, and yes, he was still incredibly clumsy. But utterly unique among the genin, or even any Konoha ninja at at all, was Obito's ability to actually _listen_ to Kakashi. The other ninja always looked confused and asked Kakashi to explain or repeat himself all the time, but Obito simply listened and accepted whatever Kakashi said. Obito didn't ask things like "what does that have to do with anything?" or "who said anything about dogs?" Obito could follow along with Kakashi's train of thought in a way the others couldn't, not even Sakumo. Kakashi had never had a friend like that before.

Obito and Rin were waiting by the lunch rock when Kakashi arrived. They waved at him.

"Yo," said Obito. "Sorry I wasn't here yesterday."

"Oh!" said Kakashi, surprised. "You too? I wasn't here either. So that worked out okay." Kakashi beamed. "But never mind that - watch this!"

Kakashi made the hand signs for his fireball, then exhaled fire chakra like he had for the rope. Again, he felt the success before he saw it, and a ball of fire ballooned steadily from his mouth, warming but not scalding him on the way out. The fireball was about three feet in diameter, which Kakashi deemed a very respectable size. Kakashi ended the technique, then beamed at Obito and Rin, who were both stunned. Rin recovered first.

"You did it, Kakashi!" she said, clapping her hands in applause. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks," said Kakashi, puffing out his chest.

Obito was a mixture of impressed and annoyed. "How did you...?"

"I asked Asuma's dad for help," said Kakashi. "Don't worry, I didn't show him the fireball. I had him show me a different one. Look!"

Kakashi demonstrated the fire rope. Obito watched with interest.

"Oh, I like that one," said Obito, after Kakashi was done. "Snake, Dragon, Rabbit, Tiger?"

"Yeah. It's different from your fireball though, you don't put much chakra into it all at once. You feed it a bit at a time." Kakashi scratched his head. "Dunno what would happen if you put in a lot. I expect it would fall apart. I'll have to try it later."

Obito produced a fire rope of a respectable size and strength on his first attempt. Clearly one fire-breathing technique was much like another. Kakashi giggled approvingly.

"This is fun," he said. "We should come up with other fire stuff."

"I..." said Obito, hesitantly. "I know other fire techniques. And you can make the fireball into lots of little fireballs instead, if you form the chakra differently. I could show you if you wanted."

"Oh yes!" said Kakashi, happily. "That sounds like fun. Oh! My dad showed me a lightning technique this morning, too. Can you do lightning?"

"Lightning? You can do lightning, too?" Obito looked somewhat wild.

"No, I couldn't do it yet," said Kakashi sadly. "I'll have to practice more."

"Oh." Obito looked relieved. Rin elbowed him.

"I'll sure you'll figure it out soon, Kakashi," said Rin, glaring pointedly at Obito.

"Er, right," said Obito.

"Probably," agreed Kakashi, oblivious. "My dad says lightning's a Hatake clan tradition. Like your clan and fire, I think."

Obito opened his mouth to answer, but stopped short at the look on Rin's face. Up until now, Obito thought she'd recovered from the odd distraction she'd been in on the way here, but she suddenly looked ill.

"Um," said, in a voice pitched a little higher than usual. "Hatake?"

Kakashi nodded, then seemed to spot Rin's discomfort. "Is something wrong?"

"Um. Um." Rin twisted the hem of her shirt so tightly that Obito worried she'd rip it.

"Did you eat something bad?" said Kakashi. "Sometimes my dad gets like that when he eats too much cheese."

"Your dad," repeated Rin. "Ah. Yes. About your dad. You did, you did say Hatake, right? You said it once before too, but I'd thought maybe I'd misheard...?"

Rin trailed off and looked to Obito for support, but Obito could only stare back blankly, mystified. Kakashi wore a confused frown of his own.

"Yes, Hatake," he said. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. What's wrong with that?"

Rin's face was strained. "So your father is... Hatake Sakumo?"

"You've heard of him?" Kakashi brightened. "Oh, of course you've heard of him! He's famous."

"Yes," said Rin, distantly. "The White Fang."

"Yes, that's him," said Kakashi, proudly. "He-"

Whatever Kakashi said next was drowned out by the sudden rushing sound in Obito's ears. The White Fang? _The_ _White Fang?_ The words kept repeating in his head, making no sense.

There were few ninja in the Fire Country that the Uchiha were afraid of, even including Konoha. There weren't a lot of counters to the predictive nature of the Uchiha's Sharingan technique but speed was one of them. Prediction wasn't much use if you couldn't move out of the way in time, as Tsubaki had said to him once. The Uchiha trained their own speed to compensate for this, but there wasn't much most of them could do against true speed-types like the White Fang.

The _White Fang._

"Obito?"

Kakashi's concerned voice broke through the fog. Obito looked down to see the younger boy's worried eyes watching him carefully over his half-mask.

"The White Fang?" said Obito hoarsely.

"Yes?" said Kakashi.

"The White Fang is your _father_?"

"What's wrong with that?" Kakashi looked even more worried now, and unconsciously took a half-step backwards.

Obito shut his eyes. Well, ha, he'd been right, hadn't he? Kakashi and his father _were_ independent. The White Fang was widely considered the only viable alternative to Konoha when it came to opposing the Uchiha. He'd killed several Uchiha in the past; no one Obito had been particularly close to, more faces in the village whose absence Obito noticed, but it mattered. The Uchiha wouldn't want to ally with the _White Fang_ , for one thing. For another...

Obito regarded Kakashi's innocent face with a queasy feeling in his stomach. Kakashi didn't seem interested in harming him or Rin, but Obito suddenly found that he regarded Kakashi's unusual skill in a different light now. Kakashi was the White Fang's son. Kakashi was dangerous.

_My dad showed me a lightning technique this morning._

"Why have you been hanging out with us?" said Obito, suddenly. "Are you a spy?"

Kakashi goggled at him, going nearly cross eyed. "What are you talking about? Why would I spy on _you_?"

Obito felt a flash of anger then, suddenly certain. "Because you're the White Fang's son! Everyone knows the White Fang can match the Uchiha! You _are_ a spy!" Obito pulled a kunai from his pouch and took a defensive stance.

It was Kakashi's turn to be angry. "You're not being funny right now, you know! It's not funny! My dad's a great ninja, so I don't know why you're being mean about it. Anyway, what have the Uchiha got to do with anything? I don't know anything about them."

Obito snorted in disbelief. "As if. You just bumped into an Uchiha in Uchiha territory by _accident_ , then did you?"

Kakashi looked bewildered. "What? When?"

Rin stepped between the two of them to referee, arms outstretched to keep them separated. She looked pointedly at Kakashi until he looked at her.

"Kakashi," said Rin. "Obito is an Uchiha."

Kakashi stared at her silently for a few seconds, then turned and stared at Obito. Obito stared back. Kakashi looked at Rin again, who nodded encouragingly. Kakashi let his gaze drift and focused on nothing in particular as he turned this idea around in his head.

"Oh." He stared at Obito again. "So that's why you're never at the morning training."

Obito's stance wavered in uncertainty. "You didn't know I was an Uchiha?"

Kakashi looked exasperated. "I've never met an Uchiha before! How was I supposed to know? I thought you were another Konoha ninja. I don't know them all yet."

Rin and Obito exchanged a look.

"You and the White Fang live in Konoha?" said Rin.

"Me and my _dad_ ," Kakashi emphasized, pointedly. "A little over a month now. The other genin are too loud, so that's why I like to come here to train."

An uncomfortable silence descended as each of the three of them each separately worked out that they were, in fact, enemies of each others' sworn villages who ought not be speaking to each other. Kakashi fiddled with his hands.

"My dad's nice, you know," said Kakashi. "He never shouts. He doesn't really like fighting. You'd probably like him. Everyone likes my dad. My dad likes most people too." Kakashi squirmed some more.

"I think," said Rin quietly, "you'd better leave, Kakashi."

Obito felt a wave of mixed emotions wash over him. It needed to be said of course, and Obito was guilty grateful that Rin had been the one to do it. He didn't want Kakashi to leave, and didn't want Kakashi to think he did.

Kakashi swallowed. "Why?"

Obito opened and closed his mouth a few times. What could he say? The Hatakes had only joined Konoha recently, or else Obito would have heard about it. Were there other Hatakes? No - Kakashi had said something about there being only him and his father once, hadn't he? Would the kid have any concept of loyalty to his clan, if it was only his father? Obito was bewildered at the idea. What else was there?

Rin saved him again."It's complicated, Kakashi," she said, gently. "Konoha and the Uchiha have never gotten along. You do know that, right?"

"Yeah," said Kakashi. "But that was a long time ago or something, wasn't it?"

Rin winced. "Sort of. Officially, we don't fight anymore. But our villages aren't really... friends. So, unofficially-"

"We mess with each other in ways that won't get anyone caught and we all pretend that we don't," said Obito. "Konoha and us both. That's what my cousin Tsubaki says." He looked unhappily at the ground as he spoke.

Kakashi thought about this. "That doesn't sound right. The hokage's an old guy with a weird hat. Asuma's dad. He showed me the fire rope. He wouldn't do that to people for no reason."

"He _has_ a reason, Kakashi," said Rin. "Konoha doesn't like the Uchiha. They want the Uchiha to go away. That's the reason."

Silence reigned once more. Again, Kakashi broke it.

"Just because our villages hate each other, it doesn't mean we have to hate each other," said Kakashi, trying to sound reasonable. "We could still train together, couldn't we? I mean it's been okay so far."

"I don't think we can, Kakashi," said Rin.

"But." Kakashi's eyes stung. "But I like you guys."

"Who cares," said Obito roughly, suddenly angry. "It doesn't matter. Who cares!"

Obito didn't quite turn away in time to hide his tears from Kakashi. He hesitated for a moment, his back to Kakashi. But what good would staying any longer do? There was nothing any of them could do about this. Staying wouldn't make their clans magically start getting along. He forced himself to walk away, and didn't look back again.

Kakashi watched Obito until he was out of sight. Rin and was crying, too. Kakashi took a step towards her then stopped, confused.

"I should have said something before, or maybe... maybe not said anything at all," said Rin. She wiped her eyes with a sleeve. "I'm sorry."

Kakashi watched Rin disappear into the woods after Obito. He remained standing where he was beside the lunch rock, too empty of feelings to move. He didn't understand what had just happened, couldn't see the fundamental problem with the situation that was so obvious to Obito and Rin.

He felt like if he'd been cleverer, he'd have figured out what he should have said to convince them to... what? Keep training with him? That didn't sound like the answer. If he'd been cleverer, he'd have figured out that out too, he supposed. There _was_ a solution, Kakashi felt certain there was, that there must be one, but it was just too big for him to understand. And now, the moment was gone.

Kakashi stood there for a long time, miserable and alone, before he managed to make his feet move again to head back to Konoha.

*

_Thwack! Thunk! Thunk_

 

The kunai hit the tree one after another, completely failing to make Obito feel any better. Obito was angry - at Rin, at Kakashi, and at himself most of all. Of course Kakashi wasn't from the Uchiha village! Of course he was from Konoha! Only someone with no familiarity with the Uchiha would have bothered to befriend him. Only someone he couldn't be friends with would turn up wanting to be his friend. If Kakashi had understood what a failure Obito was, he wouldn't have wasted his time trying to help him.

_Thunk!_

He knew his anger at Rin was unjustified, but he spitefully directed it at her anyway. If only she hadn't said anything! Or maybe had said something earlier, then maybe they could have... Obito didn't know. But Rin's knowing about Kakashi being from Konoha somehow felt like it had called the situation into existence in the first place.

What was that metaphor about cats in boxes Tsubaki had told him about? How it's only when you look in the box that the cat becomes dead, till then it could be alive? It felt like that to Obito right now. Rin hadn't killed the cat, but she had looked.

_Thunk! Thunk! Thwunk!_

Obito sat down heavily and curled his arms around his knees. It wasn't fair. He'd learned more from just a week of training with Kakashi than he'd learned in years from his clan. He couldn't understand why this was, and he didn't want to go back to being dead last.

The bushes behind him rustled gently. Obito didn't turn around to look.

"I'm sorry," said Rin, barely loud enough to hear.

Obito's anger fell out of the bottom of his stomach with a _whumf._ Rin had liked Kakashi too, and hadn't wanted to make him leave. She'd asked the questions Obito had been too afraid to ask, and said the things he'd been too wretched to say. If anything, he should be mad at himself for looking away from the answers he knew he wouldn't like.

"'s not your fault," mumbled Obito to his knees.

He heard her approach quietly, and the grass rustled as she sat down next to him. A handkerchief appeared in his vision. He took it, and blew his nose into it. He felt Rin's arm around his shoulders.

"I'm sorry too," he said.

*

Kakashi shuffled back into the Konoha training yard only a couple of hours after he'd left. He'd been too upset on the way back to pay attention to where he was going, and had wandered aimlessly for a while along the village streets. He'd ended up at the training yard more or less by mistake, but it was as good a place as any to be now.

The genin were all training together again, as they had been before lunch. In one corner of the yard Mr. Minato was consulting in hushed tones with a ninja in porcelain monkey mask, and didn't seem to have noticed Kakashi yet. Kakashi took advantage of Mr. Minato's distraction and fell in beside Asuma and Kurenai.

"Where've you been?" demanded Asuma. "We're supposed to be learning formations."

"Nowhere," said Kakashi.

"Yeah, right," said Asuma. "Mr. Minato was looking for you."

"Kakashi!"

Mr. Minato had spotted him and came over with the monkey-masked ninja in tow, looking worried.

"Are you okay?"

Minato inspected Kakashi critically, lifting his arms and turning him around, as though looking for injuries.

"I'm fine," said Kakashi. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Saru here saw you in the forest, headed into Uchiha territory."

Kakashi blinked. "Uchiha territory?"

Kakashi remembered Obito saying something about that too, come to think of it. He hadn't paid it much attention at the time.

"You went west into the forest, didn't you? Saru said he saw you two kilometres past Konoha's border, for goodness' sake!"

Kakashi scratched his head. "I only went where I always go to train in the afternoon. Konoha territory doesn't end until that big waterfall, right? The one that goes into the squiggly river?"

Mr. Minato looked blank, but the monkey-masked man coughed.

"You pass another waterfall on the way to that one. Shorter, but much wider, that flows into to the straight-flowing river? That's where Konoha territory ends in that direction."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Oh." Kakashi considered this. "I usually train a lot further in past that," he admitted eventually. "I thought it was the other waterfall."

Mr. Minato sank his face into his hands. Asuma and Kurenai, who'd been listening in, looked impressed.

"You go to train in Uchiha territory in the afternoons?" said Asuma.

"Every day?" said Kurenai.

" _My_ dad won't let me go in there."

"Kakashi isn't allowed in there any more than you are," said Mr. Minato, sharply. "He's _extremely_ lucky he didn't bump into any Uchiha while he was in there, or he might have gotten hurt. Or worse."

Kakashi said nothing.

"I won't get you into trouble for doing it by mistake," said Mr. Minato, when he saw Kakashi's despondent expression, "but you know better now. Don't do it again, please. Okay? Say 'yes Mr. Minato.'"

"Yes, Mr. Minato," said Kakashi obediently.

"Good. Thank you. You can go practice with Asuma and Kurenai now, I'll join you in a minute."

Mr. Minato and Saru walked away, and Kakashi caught a bit of their conversation as they did.

"-lucky you took that route back, or he'd go back again tomorrow."

"I should have brought him back with me, but I had to tell the hokage about-"

"No, no, I understand. It's good that you-"

Asuma elbowed him. "Come on daredevil, we gotta get these formations down before the Uchiha attack us."

Kakashi started. "What? The Uchiha?"

"Oh, that's right, you weren't here," said Kurenai. "Mr. Minato came and told us all just after lunch. The hokage received a hawk with Madara's seal on it. The Uchiha have declared war on Kohona.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the day had started out so well! 
> 
> It's been a while since the last chapter update so I'm gonna go back and do a bit of editing - nothing major, just typo-fixing and readability. I don't have betareaders so I have to do these things myself, haha!


	6. Uncertainty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys do their best to understand the complexities of ninja politics, both personal and social.

Kakashi's team went on its first patrol with Mr. Minato two days later. They were given a swath of farmland to the west of the hidden village to guard; the edge of Konoha forest formed its eastern frontier, a small stream indicated the western edge, and the north and south edges were each marked by watchtowers. The territory was several hundred acres in size, encompassing dozens of farms, roads, footpaths, hills, small patches of trees, and half of a mountain. Kakashi couldn't imagine how his little team was supposed to find enemy ninja in it.

"Don't worry," said Mr. Minato. "It's not only us. There are other patrols nearby and plenty of watchtowers. Konoha has long-ranged methods of detecting foreign chakra signatures within our territory, too." He smiled sunnily at them. "In fact, this would be a perfect opportunity for us all to practice detecting chakra signatures ourselves! Here, let me show you..."

Kakashi's enthusiasm for patrol work had not survived the knowledge that he was looking for Uchiha - Uchiha, like Obito. Mr. Minato had explained that a state of war meant that the Uchiha would certainly attack their little team on sight, but what if it was Obito who saw them? Surely he wouldn't attack them. Other people in Obito's squad might attack him though, but Kakashi didn't want to fight them any more than he wanted Obito to fight Kurenai and Asuma.

Kakashi wanted to ask someone for advice, but he worried that if he gave too much away he'd get in trouble. Mr. Minato hadn't been happy about Kakashi training in the forest, and would be even less impressed to hear Kakashi had actually made friends with an Uchiha. Asking Kurenai and Asuma would run the risk of them blabbing to Mr. Minato, and Kakashi was skeptical that they knew much more than him anyway. Sakumo hadn't even been home long enough for Kakashi to ask him anything at all since war had been declared a few days ago, off on secret missions for the hokage, Kakashi was sure. So Kakashi told no one, and quietly mulled the problem over for himself without much success.

Their patrol stayed in the open much of the time, which Mr. Minato explained was to reassure the civilians. This unusual visibility was strange, but not unpleasant. The Konoha farmers waved to their little patrol when they saw them passing, and Mr. Minato always stopped to ask how the farmers were, whether they'd seen anything, if they'd heard any rumours, and so on. One farmer gave Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai a few apples from his orchard, and another farmer introduced the squad to a three-day old calf, which Kakashi managed to pet before it scampered back to its mother.

"About time something was done about those Uchiha bastards," opined one farmer. He then realized that three-quarters of his audience was under ten years old. "Er, sorry. Uchiha, uh, scoundrels. They're always causing trouble for honest folk on the roads. I've had people come running to my house, you know. We're close to a bend in the road where people get jumped all the time by the fu- uh, fiends. One poor fellow bled to death on my front porch once, while my wife was next door getting help." The farmer shook his head sadly.

"How did you know it was the Uchiha?" Kakashi asked.

"Well it was ninjas, so it had to be them," reasoned the farmer. "Everybody knows it's the Uchiha that do it."

Kakashi found that particular exchange dissatisfying, but Asuma and Kurenai didn't seem to find anything to fault with the man's logic.

"They'd hardly admit to doing it, now would they?" said Asuma, when they'd continued patrolling again. "Wouldn't leave evidence that'd lead to them getting caught, neither."

"But if there isn't any evidence," said Kakashi, "and they don't admit to it, how do you know it's them?"

"Who else would attack Konoha's supplies or farmers?" said Kurenai.

Kakashi waved a hand vaguely. "I don't know. It could be someone else. Maybe independant ninja? Or... maybe some bad Uchiha, who the other Uchiha don't know about?"

Asuma snorted. "There isn't 'bad Uchiha' and 'good Uchiha,' dummy! There's just Uchiha. All they care about is their own clan."

"Come on you guys!" called Mr. Minato, from ahead of them. "We're gonna break for lunch."

Kurenai and Asuma trotted away, bickering good-naturedly. Kakashi watched them go. He'd learned a bit about Konoha in the last few days from listening to Kurenai and Asuma chatter. Being unable to recognize Rin and Obito as outsiders had been something of a rude awakening for Kakashi, and as a result he had pledged to himself to be less ignorant in the future.

He knew the names of a few of Konoha's most important clans now: Senju, the founding clan; Hyuga, who had mysterious eye techniques; Aburame, who somehow used bugs in their techniques; Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka, who would often form teams with each other; and the large Sarutobi clan, of which Asuma and his father the hokage were a part. They had been separate clans before joining Konoha, but they all seemed to get along with each other now.

Kakashi wondered why the Uchiha were in a clan all by themselves. They had some kind of affiliation with a few other clans, like Rin's, but they weren't part of one of the big official ninja villages. Kakashi and his dad hadn't been in a village either up to now, but they were the only two Hatakes. Surely a bigger clan would want to be part of a village, wouldn't they?

"Kakashi! Come on!" 

Kakashi sighed. It was all too big for him to understand. He just wanted to be able to see Obito and Rin again. Perhaps he'd be able to come up with a plan after he'd eaten - his dad always said food helped a person think better. Kakashi followed after Asuma and Kurenai to lunch, his tiny frown covered by his half-mask.

***

"Obito! Stay at Genki's four o' clock! You've pushed up too far again." 

Obito gritted his teeth and did as Tsubaki instructed. He and Genki and Maa had been practicing maneuvers with explosives for the past few days, and the formations involved depended on careful aim and positioning. They used dummy bombs filled with coloured powder for practice, which exploded in a dusty cloud on impact. While not painful, the dust from the dummy bombs nevertheless had an annoying tendency to stick.

"Formation X!" called Tsubaki.

As the leader Tsubaki formed the axis of all of the formations, with Maa and Genki as the formations' revolving left and right arms, and Obito as the mobile unit who moved around and within the formations to fill in as needed. When travelling in one of the neutral formations, Obito by default remained at the back as the squad's rearguard and lookout.

Formation X involved Tsubaki and Genki cutting across the target from left to right, then Maa and Obito following quickly after and cutting from right to left. It was simple, but it allowed two teammates to keep watch at all times and allowed for a respectable amount of bomb coverage. Obito followed the pattern as they'd practiced dozens of times now: waited for Tsubaki and Genki and scanned the trees for fictional enemies, then dropped his own bombs on the target. He did so with his teeth clenched and an eye half-kept on Maa, who had an alarming tendency to trip.

"All right! That's enough for today."

Obito landed heavily on a tree branch, nearly losing his balance, and risked wiping his sweaty forehead with a shirtsleeve. The wooden caravans below were covered in the blue powder from the bombs with only a few off the mark, and even then not too badly.

Tsubaki whistled loudly to summon Obito's squad down from the trees.

"Good! Very good! I bet you're probably sick of drills, so you'll be happy to hear that there should be orders coming down the pipe soon for some real action. But that's all I can say about it right now. Till then - time for lunch!"

Obito's stomach flopped unpleasantly. Drills with dummy bombs were one thing, real bombs and real caravans were another. Would he have to kill someone? He supposed he might have to, if he was ordered to. Obito understood in the abstract that killing people was what ninja did, but he'd been so useless at being a ninja for so long that it hadn't ever felt like a real prospect. Now that it was actually a possibility, Obito found that the idea didn't appeal to him.

A common dining area had been set up near the training yards, with massive pots of rice and stews carefully prepared and overseen by a few of the village civilians. Obito waited until his teammates had taken their portions before taking his own, and picked the emptiest bench he could to eat at. People had been giving him strange looks since his practice bout with Hiro, like they expected something from him now. It made Obito uneasy, and he did his best to avoid the others to keep that strange air of expectation at bay. He almost wished he'd never drawn attention to himself in the first place, so that he might be left in peace to do as he liked.

His plan for solitude backfired spectacularly when both Tsubaki and her sister Ume sat down in the empty space next to him. Tsubaki was careful as graceful as always, but Ume sat down heavily enough to rattle Obito's bowl of rice.

"Hey pipsqueak," said Ume, with a toothy grin. Obito smiled back weakly.

Obito wasn't entirely sure what he thought of Ume. She was thirteen, to Tsubaki's fifteen, but in terms of worldly cynicism she was by far the elder of the two. She gave Obito the impression of barely being able to contain her frustration with the world, and of wanting to hit whoever she was speaking to. She could be funny, but in a mean way that was at the expense of someone else. As a ninja, she was as sharp and painfully accurate as her jibes, and rumour said she was likely to be made jonin soon. Obito both admired and feared her.

"Finally got all the powder out of your hair, I see," said Ume.

Obito winced. During their first practice, Maa had dropped an armful of dummy bombs on Obito's head and turned him blue from head to elbows. Obito had barely been able to hear her stammered apologies through his own coughing.

Tsubaki pressed her lips together, but didn't quite manage to repress her smirk. "Everyone's aim has improved, too." 

"Should hope so," said Ume, around a mouthful of stew. "Can't have Maa doing that with real bombs. Uchiha heads are a valuable commodity these days."

She elbowed Obito jovially, and Obito slopped stew onto his lap. Ume didn't appear to notice.

"I'm surprised how fast you've been picking things up lately, you know," said Ume, chewing another mouthful thoughtfully. "I liked that fire rope you used the other day, too. Haven't seen that technique before."

Obito chased a potato around his bowl. "Thanks."

"Where'd you learn it?"

He was _not_ going to think about Kakashi, Obito told himself sternly. There was nothing to be done about The Kakashi Problem, and thinking about it made him feel worse. What business was it of Ume's anyway? She'd never been interested in his learning before.

Obito shrugged. "Dunno. Saw it somewhere I guess."

"'Saw it somewhere,'" repeated Ume, dubiously.

A flash of anger went through Obito. "Yeah, I did. Do you remember where you learned all of _your_ techniques?"

"Yep," said Ume.

"I- what? You do?"

"You don't?" 

"No," said Obito. "What's the first technique you remember learning, then?" 

"Easy," said Ume. "Fireball, from our father."

Tsubaki nodded, smiling. "Ahh, fond memories. You set father's favourite cherry tree on fire."

Ume laughed. "You set your own pants on fire!"

The two sisters initiated a fierce elbow-nudging fight, which ended only after Tsubaki almost knocked her own bowl of rice into the dirt.

Obito watched with interest. "You two learned the fireball from your father?"

"Hmm?" Tsubaki brushed something off a dropped chopstick. "Oh yes, of course. I was... five? The first time my father showed me. And Ume always wanted to do what I was doing so she sort of learned at the same time." Tsubaki laughed. "Not that she could do it then."

"I caught up!" said Ume.

A thought occurred to Obito. "So before you started the training school, you'd already practiced the fireball? You didn't learn it there for the first time?"

"Obviously," said Ume, half-laughing. "Fireballs take forever to learn."

"Oh," said Obito. "How long did it take you?"

"A few months," said Tsubaki. "Preliminary training, anyway. For the breathing and such. You can learn that part pretty young, of course. Being actually able to control the chakra can take longer. Usually it's a lung capacity thing, you know? I could do it by the time I was seven, though."

She looked very pleased by this statement, and Ume thumped her on the shoulder with a fist.

"I managed it by age six, myself," said Ume, smirking.

I know someone who learned it earlier and faster than either of you,thought Obito. Then he remembered that he and Kakashi weren't friends anymore, and he tried to forget the thought altogether.

"Where'd you learn your fireball?" said Ume.

"Um," said Obito. "I didn't see it until the teacher showed us in class, when I was seven."

Tsubaki's head shot up. "What?"

Ume frowned as well. "Didn't your dad- uh, mom..." she paused, bemused. "Grandmother? Show you?"

"No," said Obito. "She has trouble getting her breath, and she has sore joints and a bad hip. She uh..." he hesitated. "She forgets stuff a lot too."

Ume and Tsubaki exchanged a look.

"So... no one ever showed you anything?" said Tsubaki, slowly.

Obito shrugged. "The teachers, in class, like I said."

But they said I was slow, thought Obito, and I didn't like asking them for help. So I just taught myself, by watching everyone else _._

"Huh," said Ume, thoughtfully.

Obito quickly shoved the final, slightly too-large, spoonful of stew and rice into his mouth, and swallowed it down hard. He got up and pushed away from the table.

"I better go check on my grandma," he said. "She usually has stuff around the house that needs doing in the afternoons."

Tsubaki waved as Obito left, but Ume just watched him go. He felt like he was being measured up for something, but for what, he had no idea. As he headed home, he spotted Maa and Yuki chatting on a street corner. He slowed as he drew near them.

"Hey," said Obito, when he judged there to be a lull in their conversation.

Maa looked up. "Hey, Obito. What's up?"

"Where did you learn to do a fireball?"

Maa blinked at him a few times. "Umm. My mom showed me when I was little."

"How little?"

Maa scratched her head. "Like four or five I guess?"

Obito looked at Yuki. "How about you?"

"My older brother Kanji  taught me," said Yuki. "He showed me on my fourth birthday - I remember because he said it was my birthday present."

"So," said Obito, "you both sorta knew how to do a fireball before they showed us in class?"

"Gosh, yeah," said Yuki.

"Fireballs take _forever_ to learn," agreed Maa.

"Oh," said Obito. "Ok. Thanks. Sorry to bother you."

Obito wandered away from the pair, feeling... strange. Some thought, some revelation seemed to be hanging in his mind just out of reach, calling for his attention. He tried, but he couldn't quite make the jump. He kept walking, feeling unfocused and uncertain in a way he found hard to describe. 

What did it matter, if other people had known things he hadn't? Nobody knew everything. What was important was what he knew now, right? And what he learned in the future, too of course. The problem was, Obito didn't know _what_ he didn't know, only that he didn't know things. He had a pinched feeling of foreboding in his stomach. It told him that there was something big that he was missing, something he would need to understand very soon. All he had to do was figure out what that something was. 

*** 

Unusually, Sakumo was already home when Kakashi arrived that night. Kakashi found him at the kitchen sink, rinsing rice, with a small pile of chopped vegetables on the cutting board beside him. Delighted, Kakashi helped him finish making the meal, which turned out to be curry, and they ate it together at the table. 

It had been a while since the two of them had eaten together. Before he had met Obito, by Kakashi's estimate. Kakashi wondered what sort of missions jonin were sent on during a war. Tiring ones, from the look of the dark circles under his dad's eyes. 

Kakashi toyed with a potato for a few moments.

"Something on your mind?" said Sakumo, who had been watching his son carefully.

"Mmm." Kakashi tilted his head to one side, thoughtfully. "Dad? Why are we fighting with the Uchiha?"

His dad raised an eyebrow. "I assume you mean other than that they've declared war on us?" 

Kakashi nodded.

His dad took a thoughtful sip of green tea before he answered. 

"It depends on your point of view. Probably Konoha would blame the Uchiha's tendency to attack Konoha's caravans to disrupt trade, the Uchiha's history of blowing up bridges, of tipping off our targets and allying with our enemies." His dad paused to hold out a hand, palm up. "On the other hand, the Uchiha would point to the campaign of character assassination Konoha has waged to keep the high-paying missions from ever going to the Uchiha, and to Konoha's insistence on putting tolls on every road headed to the Uchiha village, and marking up taxes on any imports that must first go through Konoha to get to them." 

Kakashi frowned. "Why do we do that?"

His dad shrugged. "Many of those who run Konoha distrust the Uchiha. They think that if we let the Uchiha acquire too much money and influence they'll seek to destroy Konoha."

"But if we weren't mean to them, why would they want to?" said Kakashi.

His dad smiled wryly. "Well-observed. Paranoia does not generally improve an already delicate situation, no. Everyone's actions feed into each other's, and continue the cycle."

"What happened this particular time both does and does not matter," continued Sakumo. "Really, the reason Konoha and the Uchiha fight each other is that they have opposing values. Until they - ha, or 'we' now, I should say - find some way to resolve these differences, and break the cycle of mistrust, we're never going to get along with each other."

Kakashi chewed thoughtfully on the edge of his tea cup as his father's words sank in.

"So," said Kakashi, "what do Konoha and the Uchiha think then, that's so different?"

Sakumo leaned back in his chair. "Well you'd need to ask an Uchiha to be sure, but I think the Uchiha are afraid of Konoha's existence, mostly."

"Afraid?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"That doesn't make sense. Aren't they the ones who started the war?"

"They did. Sometimes people do bold things out of fear. Often not clever things, though." Sakumo sipped his tea again. "You know, the Uchiha joining Konoha was once a real possibility, back when Konoha was being created. The current Uchiha clan head, Madara, had been good friends with the First Hokage when they were young."

"They were?" said Kakashi. He thought immediately of Obito.

"They were," confirmed Sakumo. "Hashirama, the First Hokage, had formally invited the Uchiha to be a part of Konoha. It seemed like they might accept for a while, but something changed."

"What?"

Sakumo shrugged. "No one knows now. Except Madara I suppose. Everyone has their guesses."

"Well, what's yours then?"

"Full of questions today, aren't you?" said Sakumo, but he sounded amused. "Well, my guess is based on the reason the Hatake clan hesitated. My grandmother was the head at the time when we nearly joined but- well I think the best way to put it is that we panicked. My grandmother told me that everyone just felt overwhelmed by the idea. It was the fear of being swallowed up by something much larger than ourselves, she said. Of being forced to change, and by doing so lose what made us Hatake to begin with."

"Is that what'll happen?"

"I don't know. I don't think so, though. It's worth risking."

"Why?"

"I'm sure you've noticed that we're the only ones left in the Hatake clan," said Sakumo. "I think at this point, the alternative to the Hatake banding together with Konoha is dying alone." He hesitated. "I don't want that for you, Kakashi."

Kakashi fidgeted with his empty mug. "Is that what the Uchiha are going to do? Die alone?"

His father looked up at his son sadly.

"I hope not."


End file.
